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3,000 Iowa homes evacuated after river breaches banks
The Cedar River poured over its banks on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets.
- AP
- Published: 00:01 June 14, 2008
Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Cedar River poured over its banks on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets.
Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids, where several days of preparation could not hold back the rain-swollen river.
Rescuers had to use boats to reach many stranded residents, and people could be seen dragging suitcases up closed highway exit ramps to escape the water.
Officials estimated that 3,200 homes were evacuated and some 8,000 residents displaced. Days of heavy rain across the state have sent nine rivers across Iowa at or above historic flood levels.
Residents were already steeling themselves for floods before storms late on Wednesday and early on Thursday brought up to 13 centimetres of rain across west central Iowa.
"We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring," said Brian Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport. "We're in uncharted territory - this is an event beyond what anybody could even imagine."
Governor Chet Culver has declared 55 of the state's 99 counties as state disaster areas. No deaths or serious injuries were reported in Iowa, but one man was killed in southern Minnesota after his car plunged from a washed-out road into floodwaters. Another person was rescued from a nearby vehicle in the town of Albert Lea.
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